Contents

Biography

The daughter of Gotham City's Police Commissioner James W. Gordon, Barbara Gordon was forbidden by her overprotective father from joining the GCPD. Instead, she took on the identity of Batgirl and was a crime-fighting partner of Batman for years. But that all ended when the Joker shot her through the spine. Paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair, Barbara adopted the new identity of Oracle, and now aids the Dark Knight with her computer expertise, providing Batman with a constant stream of information in the field to aid his battle against crime.

Road to Arkham

After foiling the Joker's latest scheme and transferring him to Arkham Asylum via Batmobile, Oracle contacted Batman, having heard of the events prior, stating that the Joker was his third 'big gun' in the last month, following Victor Zsasz and the Scarecrow. Batman discussed his suspicions with the similarities and convenience surrounding the three captures before Batman arrived at Arkham.

Batman: Arkham Asylum

Batman contacts Oracle for the first time using an ear communicator in his cowl while following the Joker's trail of destruction.

Shortly after Batman had arrived with the Joker at Arkham Asylum, the Joker was escorted by a team of armed and armored security guards to the Holding Cells, where he broke free. The Clown Prince of Crime killed a guard and a doctor in the area before freeing all the prisoners housed in the Holding Cells. While Batman fought them off, the Joker ran amok through the Intensive Treatment Facility, killing asylum guards in his path. Batman followed him, leaving Commissioner Gordon, Barbara's father, inside a reception area guarded by Frank Boles, a decorated Arkham security guard. As he arrived at the Patient Pacification Chamber, Batman contacted Oracle via his communications system. He assured her that her father was safe. This proved to be wrong, however, as Frank Boles was secretly in the Joker's employ and he clubbed Gordon with a nightstick, kidnapping him and regrouping with the Joker's partner-in-crime, Harley Quinn. Batman informed Barbara of this calamity, but she remained calm despite her fears. Batman contacted her again, telling her he was going to the office unit where Gordon had been to see if he could pick up a trail. He isolated his cowl's vision to detect traces of Boles' favorite tipple in the air and follow him. Batman contacted Oracle again after saving Henry Smith, an Arkham guard from a falling elevator cut by Harley Quinn. ("Harley Quinn tried to slow me down. Dropped an elevator on me.") Barbara asked if it worked, to which Batman responded to with a chuckle:"Of course not."

Oracle's photo

Batman also found that the Joker's thugs had gotten control of guns and had shot many of the asylum's guards. She helped him use his cowl's vision to detect armed henchmen, which would now appear in red. The Riddler later used the same "primitive communications system" Batman used to contact Oracle to assign him the challenge of solving 240 challenges across Arkham Island. Upon arriving in Arkham East, Batman contacted Oracle and asked her to shut down the Batmobile's countermeasure system when Harley Quinn and several escaped inmates thrashed the Batmobile with pieces of piping, since if she still was holding Gordon captive, he would get hurt as well. Oracle disabled the security system for Batman, then was called on by Batman again after he arrived in Arkham North. He had found Commissioner Gordon's pipe at the scene and Barbara revealed that she had once given it to him as a birthday present and that he would never leave it. Batman used this piece of information to deduce that Gordon was leaving him a trail to follow. He was correct, as Gordon had left clumps of tobacco in his wake for Batman to follow. Batman later tracked Gordon to the Medical Facility in Arkham West. Batman at one point was exposed to the Scarecrow's fear gas and began hallucinating. He found the commissioner's dead body slumped against the wall of an empty hallway outside the Morgue.

However, when the Dark Knight tried to contact Oracle to inform her of her father's death, Barbara's voice responded to Batman in his drugged state, disconnecting him. After recovering from the effects of the gas, Batman went back to where he'd seen Gordon's corpse, only to find it was really just another Arkham security guard Scarecrow had killed earlier. Oracle remained Batman's radio contact for the rest of the Joker's takeover. On one instance, he called her as he was going into Killer Croc's lair to retrieve an antidote to the Venom-based drug Titan. She told him it sounded like a suicide mission. When asked about Croc, Batman responded that Croc was just an animal and needed the right bait. Batman eventually detonated explosives under the ground as Killer Croc lunged for him, dropping the villain into the Gotham River below. After the Joker's defeat, Barbara called her father up as the Gotham City Police Department retook control of Arkham Island. He told her that doctors were treating the injured and that most inmates were back in custody. Gordon also informed his daughter that the Joker's men were recovering from the effects of the Titan drug the Joker had injected them with. Barbara asked how he was, and Gordon told her simply, "I'll survive." He promised to see her that night.

Batman: Arkham City

During the first part of the game, Alfred was Batman's main contact for information. Later, Oracle contacted Batman after he defeated some of The Penguin's henchmen. She remains his main radio contact for the remainder of the game, helping Batman find clues to apprehend Deadshot, the Identity Thief, and even The Riddler. She keeps Batman informed on what is happening outside of Arkham City, and is eventually able to deactivate Protocol 10 at his request. Similar to the previous game, Oracle is unseen, but remains a prominent character throughout the game.

In an alternate ending, if Catwoman chooses to leave Arkham City and not help Batman, Barbara Gordon sends out a distressed radio call. She states that Wayne Manor was destroyed and that James Gordon and others are dead, finally revealing that The Joker had "won." Luckily, the game is then reversed back, and Catwoman is able to make the right decision to go and save Batman.

Harley Quinn's Revenge

After Batman was taken prisoner by Harley Quinn in the secret base she had set up, Oracle sent Robin two days later to find him and rescue him. When Robin arrived, he told her that Quinn was preparing for a siege of some kind, but she said only to find Batman and then leave immediately.

When Robin entered the secret base and found Quinn, he told Oracle that he was seeing Quinn with a group of captured GCPD officers. Shortly after that, Robin found Batman's utility belt and Oracle asked him if he had made any progress. Robin said he was getting close, and later contacted Oracle to say Batman was trapped but was in some kind of meditative state.

Batman was later rescued and Quinn was also defeated.

Batman: Arkham Unhinged

Oracle appears in a few issues of the Arkham City tie-in comics. At one point, Oracle was attempting to search for the mad doc alongside Nightwing. She also informed Batman of Vicki Vale's disappearance when Vale was kidnapped by the Mad Hatter.

In the issue "Beloved", Barbara expressed her dislike of Talia, claiming her presence jeopardizes the mission. Bruce said it was a personal matter and also revealed this was why he let Barbara and Dick date behind his back.